


Choice

by Meilan_Firaga



Category: Original Work
Genre: Abuse, Abuse Survivor Who Runs Away to Freedom & Demon Who Helps Her Escape - Freeform, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 03:36:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18541465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meilan_Firaga/pseuds/Meilan_Firaga
Summary: Kate makes the choice to lie to herself on a frequent basis, but there are always moments when she can't lie any longer. When something tells her it's time to make a different choice she finally listens and sets out on a journey to start the rest of her life.





	Choice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [facethestrange](https://archiveofourown.org/users/facethestrange/gifts).



> Beta'd by [Dresupi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dresupi/pseuds/Dresupi).

Sometimes Kate told herself that she had no idea how she’d gotten into this situation. She told the lie when she leaned into the bathroom mirror to spread concealer across a bruise or while she picked out long sleeves on another scorching day. She was an easy mark to convince, eager to believe whatever she was muttering to herself while he snored away in the bed. But when she was curled into the corner where the wall met the bathtub, her face swollen and tears still streaking down her cheeks, she knew exactly how she’d gotten there. He put her there—the man who’d made all those vows to love, honor, and cherish—and every time he did she came right back, ready to let him do it all over again.

Until the day that she left.

There was nothing special about that day. A nondescript Thursday afternoon—a bit overcast but depressingly normal. It was a few days into an upswing. Kate’s bruises were healing, turning to that sickly yellow instead of deep purple and blue. Skip was on his best behavior. He’d even sent flowers to the house for her that morning. 

She was standing in the kitchen arranging those very flowers in a vase when the thought whispered across the back of her neck. She could go. Pack a bag, walk away, and never look back. He wasn’t watching, sure that she’d do as she was told now while things were good. They had no children, no pets. Her name wasn’t on any of the bills or the deed to the house. No ties but the ring on her finger. She didn’t have any friends, but at that moment she could swear someone was sitting at the kitchen island telling her that it was time.

The ring slipped away easily enough. It had first gone on her hand before she’d lost the weight, so it was loosely fit these days. She left it beside the vase on the counter. A few photographs from her youth were easy enough to slip between the pages of the book her father had read to her as a child. She tucked the book and a few other keepsakes in the bottom of a worn duffle bag she hadn’t used in years, nestled in her comfiest clothes that Skip never wanted to see her wear. There wasn’t much she cared to keep, and by the time she’d packed it all away, there was still room in the duffle. She filled that space with some food from the cupboards and all the cash from the safe. She left her debit and credit cards—all tied to accounts she shared with Skip—on the counter by the ring.

All the while that friendly voice whispered against her skin, a murmur of nothings that reassured her that everything would be okay. Kate set out on foot, heading down the sidewalk in the opposite direction of where he’d be coming from work. She cut across the park when she came to it, ducking onto one of the hiking trails that wound over the hill to a park entrance on the other side instead of looping back around to her neighborhood. Night was falling by the time she stepped out of the trees. Technically speaking, the park was closed. The lot was empty but for a beat-up silver sedan directly across from the trail where Kate emerged, and the sight stopped her in her tracks.

A figure leaned against the hood of the car. It looked like a woman, but she was…  _ blurry _ around the edges, as though she was out of focus. And she was staring directly at Kate.

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

Their voice was even stranger than their blurry appearance, a rumbling, haunting melody to the words that couldn’t come from any human throat. A shiver of fear chased its way down Kate’s spine as the words washed over her. Parts of her mind screamed for Kate to run, but there was something that kept her from it. That gentle whisper from the kitchen brushed at the back of her mind. She took a step forward.

“I thought,” they continued, waving a hand vaguely in the direction of Kate’s neighborhood, “that you might choose to stay after all.”

Kate swallowed her nerves. “Was that you in my kitchen?”

They paused, then shook their head as though they had to remind themselves of what the gesture was for. “Yes and no. I wanted you to know that the time was right, but it had to be your choice.” Their gaze was drawn to something far in the distance, perhaps a memory. “Choice makes all the difference when it’s been stolen from you for so long.” Shaking their head, they focused back on Kate and stepped away from the hood of the car. “Will you let me take you further from this place?”

Her life had been full of hesitation, of lies whispered into her pillow to comfort her at night. She’d made good choices and bad ones. She’d trusted the wrong person with the whole of herself, and she’d lied to herself about that choice for far too long. It had been her choice that afternoon when she’d walked away. It was her choice at that moment when Kate got into the car. 

Whatever they were, they drove well and quickly. Miles disappeared behind them as they left the town in their wake. Kate leaned her head against the window, her arms wrapped around her middle. Some part of her thought that she must be insane, but there was something about her companion, something besides their admittance that they’d given her the push, that made her trust them.

“Are you an angel?” she asked after nearly twenty minutes of silence.

Their hands tightened on the steering wheel, blurred lines suddenly clearing to show pale humanoid hands tipped in glittering black claws. “No,” they growled out almost immediately. The statement was harsher than any they’d made so far, but even as they barked it out their hands relaxed, the blurry quality returning to their edges. When they spoke again it was with the eerie, lyrical quality she’d heard before. “I was, once.”

In an instant, Kate felt that she understood. What she was hearing in that voice was a sorrow she’d heard in her own whispers. “Is that why choice is so important?”

“Yes.” They didn’t look at her, but Kate could  _ feel _ their approval that she’d made the connection. “I made a choice many years ago. It was the first I had ever been able to make.” Something wry and self-deprecating crept into their tone. “We were made to obey, not to question and choose. Disobedience was punished.” For another brief instant, their form solidified. They still looked a bit like a woman, but Kate was sure no one would ever mistake this creature for human. Especially not with the horrific scarring that wound down those too-sharp cheekbones.

“That’s why you helped me realize my choice.”

This time, they did look at her. She couldn’t be exactly sure, but she thought they might be smiling at her. “Yes,” they confirmed. “You have had your choices taken for too long.” They took one hand from the steering wheel and let it light briefly atop Kate’s own. There was gentleness and warmth in their touch, both tempered by a deep understanding. “I have been where you are. I would spare you if I can.” They pulled their hand back, turning back to the road. “Rest if you are tired. No harm will come to you while you are with me.

She slept in the front seat of the car until dawn. By the time she woke they were hundreds of miles from where they started, her old life far behind her. The figure behind the wheel turned the little silver sedan into the parking lot of a motel while Kate blinked the sleep from her eyes. They disappeared into the motel’s office while she tried to put herself to rights. She could easily sleep for hours more, and the feeling was an incredible relief. She wasn’t sure how she knew, given that she wasn’t even sure what state they were in, but she was sure that Skip would never find her, never hurt her, ever again.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like it! This is my first try at putting an original work on AO3, so I'm a bit nervous, but the concept of a demon helping an abuse survivor really spoke to me. Thank you for such a wonderful prompt!


End file.
